Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Tribeca Film Festival Turns Away Protesters Who Had Tickets to ‘Gasland’ Sequel

By Dave Itzkoff April 22, 2013 1:13 pmApril 22, 2013 1:13 pm

A group of protesters who tried to attend a premiere screening of the documentary “Gasland Part II” at the Tribeca Film Festival was denied admission on Sunday, leading to a disagreement on Monday over the reason: protesters say they were thrown out for asking difficult questions about the film, and the festival’s organizers say the screening was full.

“Gasland Part II,” directed by Josh Fox, is a sequel to his 2010 documentary, “Gasland,” which explores the environmental impact of natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracking, and which was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature.

The protest group that tried to attend the screening included about 20 farmers and laborers from Pennsylvania and upstate New York, as well as Phelim McAleer, a journalist and documentarian whose work includes “FrackNation,” a film that disputes the findings of “Gasland.”

Mr. McAleer said in a statement that he and the protesters were barred “by a barrage of security officers” because they trid to ask Mr. Fox “some inconvenient questions when he was on the red carpet.”

On Monday, press representatives for the Tribeca Film Festival said in a statement: “Guests that had purchased advance tickets and were in line for the film 30 minutes prior, as our ticket policy states, were admitted into the screening. Once the house was at capacity, the remaining ticket holders who had not been in line were unfortunately not able to be accommodated in the theater.”

The statement continued: “We are sorry that the few ticket holders who stayed outside gave up their seats to those who waited in line. The film is being shown three more times during the festival and we welcome them to come to any of those screenings.”

Reached by phone on Monday afternoon, Mr. McAleer said the Tribeca organizers were offering “a post-facto justification for not wanting dissenting opinions and ordinary Americans at the screening.”

“These are the people the Tribeca Film Festival should be encouraging to come,” he added.

Mr. McAleer said he planned to post a video on YouTube later on Monday that would show the confrontation and that he said would support his account of events.